#BUGSNAX??? MY FAVORITE GAME???

[aintnopartylikeaprideparty]

THIS IS THE BEST THING IVE EVER SEEN💖💖💖 (MORE IN TAGS)

i think they deserve their own cryptid adventure :-)

[broken-clover]

Regularly frustrated by the fact that most of my fixations aren't mainstream enough to have much in the way of official merch, but for the sake of both my sanity and my wallet, that's probably a good thing

[indrawzcord]

THINKING ABOUT THE GAME THATS KINDA BUG AND KINDA SNACK

[elizabethalsagacomics]

Bugsnax is one of those games that starts off adorable but then goes into "oh shit!" territory.

[houseofwolvess]

my brother is the coolest. he's a total fucking nerd who owns way too many video games, so he signed my household's xbox (which he gave to us lmao) into his account so i can leech off of all of the games in his library and im SO EXCITED

[queenoclowns]

KINDA BUG AND KINDA SNAK, TRY TO CATCH THEM IN YOUR TRAP

... OUAHH IT'S BUGSNAX

... OUAHH TALKIN' 'BOUT BUGSNAX

whatever. lesbians be upon ye. absolutely not enough liz/egg art on this site (im still not great at drawing them but. this is just a small doodle where im trying to get the hang of them.) based on the hut decor where you just get portraits of lesbians.

crt version + original image below cut

look at them. truly the best hut decor (tho i also liked filbo's little award for catching all the bugsnax).

[doomedpuppetyuri]

currently 100%ing bugsnax because i need some muppet-adjacent creatures to occupy my brain until survival street volume 2 drops and i missed playing this game and also because i got a free steam copy with the card game kickstarter and the switch didn't support achievements. here are some of my favorite screenshots so far

[katapotato55]

How to write good horror.

1- DON'T EXPLAIN WHAT THE HORROR IS. DON'T EXPLAIN ANYTHING. no context = more scary. "oh but it is just a ghost- " YES. you know that, I know that, but things are way more scary if you don't explain it. let your audience scare themselves trying to figure it out! the first FNAF game didn't explain anything it was just "ok these machines are kind aggro". that is part of what made it popular! (And truthfully this reason is why i dislike the other games in the series) i can't name how many horror movies i immediately lost interest in because it was explained. "oh no! there is blood dripping from the walls! " its demons or ghosts or whatever. you explained it. it isn't scary now that you explained the joke. if you have to explain what it is, explain it at the END of the story or near the climax at best. (or better yet, don't explain at all) 2- restraint is key i know it is tempting to show organs and blood dripping from the walls and someone eating out a corpse or whatever but don't outright show that kind of stuff ALL THE TIME or else your audience becomes desensitized to it, and if horror fans are reading/watching your work, chances are they are going to think this is weaksauce. you need to be SUBTLE when building up suspense in your story. don't show the real scary bits until the end of the buildup/ 3- normalicy and familiarity is key i am going to use bugsnax as an example. bugsnax has no gore and can be considered child friendly, but what made bugsnax scare people is that it has the facaude of a cutesy little game. doki doki lit club has a simmular principle where its like a normal dating sim but you are caught off guard and things feel off. this is a valuable tool. 4- be original and understand why the more popular ones are popular in the first place everyone has done analogue horror. why ? because we are all so used to modern technology that older televisions and tech seem kinda creepy. Blue_channel by gooseworks is one of my favorites. It gets right to the point, and while it DOES explain what the product is, it doesn't go "oooh death and scary!!! oooooooh!" it lets the audience make up their own horrifying reason as to what is happening here. saying "oooooooh look murder your parents ooooh!" isn't scary, and putting a glitchy tv filter over it isn't going to make it more scary. and finally 5- describe the unfamiliar i know i just said familiarity is key but that is only 1/2 of the equation. Everywhere at the end of time depicts the sounds of memory degrading in an alzheimers patients. this is an experience that no one could relate to except for those who are experiencing it (and sadly, those people are either dead or mentally comatose) this is also why lovecraft horror is loved, because we can only imagine so much before the lack of understanding drives you insane. hope this helps, for the love of all that is good, please stop writing bad horror.



[pastelcatnip-x3]

My current favorite indie games!!!! :3 (It’s mostly horror games- yes including Bugsnax if you know you know lol)

[snorpdawg]

You guys know what time it is — the three year anniversary of everyone’s favorite kinda-bug-and-kinda-snack game! In an effort of both love and admittedly, a little bit of masochism, I figured now is a good time to do my rite of passage as a Bugsnax fan and redraw the group photo in the end credits.

I don't want to get too sappy, but Bugsnax holds a very special place in my heart. It’s probably one of the first media I got into where I actually enjoyed interacting with the fans. The fandom really felt like a community rather than just a bunch of cheap likes and reblogs, and that’s what really drew me to make this blog!

I want to thank all of you guys for the great times! I can’t wait to see what the future holds for both the game and the community.

[fluffyglass]

COAS is one of my favorite things I've made, especially with my portrayal of the journalist. Stranger Oddfellow is inspired by my own behaviors when playing Bugsnax. it was a bit of a retrospective on how I view this game and the characters within it. As readers/writer we gawk in horror at Stranger's actions, particularly what they do to Gramble. And yet, it is something we've all done. Probably without much thought. I still feed Gramble Bugsnax. All the time, in fact. The degree of separation between the player and the journalist allows us the grace to do an objectively horrible thing in-universe for the sake of being funny or getting an achievement. Normally in discussions regarding the player and avatar, there's much more of a meta-connection. not here. This discussion is about finding Gramble sleepwalking and picking up that Strabby

[kayvision-kp]

What is your favorite character or series to draw art of?

Well I don’t really have a favorite character to draw since my fixations hop faster then a Poptick-

I would have to say my favorite series to draw from is Bugsnax, who knew a game about catching sentient food would have chokehold on me.

(Also I use most of the Grumpus as design practice that’s why when you look through my page they almost always look different then the last time I drew em)

[nina-ya]

People I'd like to get to know better

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAGGING ME @shamblespirate I AM SMOOCHING YOU SO HARD

Last song: Tití Me Preguntó by Bad Bunny

I don’t really have an explanation for this song other than it gets me hyped the fuck up and Bad Bunny really just is one of my fav Spanish speaking artists and idk with both him and I being Puerto Rican I just have this sense of pride ya know SKSMDM OKAY ENOUGH OF THAT

Favorite color: light blues

Any shade of light blue! It can be pastel, baby blue, etc etc like blue has me in a chokeholdddddd

Last Movie: Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

MY BOYFRIEND SHOWED ME THIS MOVIE AND OH MY GOD IT IS SO CUTE???? Im a sucker for cute shit and this had me *sobbing* 100/10 please go watch it

Sweet/Spicy/Savoury: Savory

Oh this is tough….. I was teetering between spicy and savory but ultimately landed on savory cause I’m just baby when it comes to spice 😭 like I like it when my food has a kick to it but I’ll always love myself a good steak with some A1 sauce or some tacos from this good taco shop down the street like I can live without spicy but I can’t live without savory

Relationship Status: Taken!

I’ve been in this relationship for over 3 years!! High school sweethearts 🥰 I actually knew him for around 6+ years and I’ve been in love with him since the beginning and he has been in love with me too but we haven’t done anything about it till senior year 😭 truly a mutual pining slow burn 🤭fun fact! Our anniversary is the same day as Laws Birthday

Last thing I googled: cenote

I booked a cruise for my birthday and I was looking up excursions and there was one where it was like cave and cenote diving and I didn’t know what it was so I looked it up! It’s basically like a sinkhole filled with water I might just have to do that 👀👀

Current Obsession: Bugsnax

THIS IS SUCH A CUTE VIDEO GAME AND IVE BEEN PLAYING IT NONSTOP FOR THE PAST WEEK I think everyone should be required to play this game at one point in their lives

tagging: @uminozerol @nc-vb @benkeibear @zoros-sheath @turtletaubwrites @purplechemtrails @crimson-hybrid

[twilightprince101]

IN BUGS AND SNAX

I've recently been seeing more Bugsnax friendos get into In Stars and Time. Like, five different people I met via Bugsnax are now doing fanart and fanfics for it (if you know you know).

And I think it's a shame. Because that number should be SO MUCH HIGHER

So Bugsnax fans who are unaware of this lovely RPG, here's my pitch to you as to why I think you'd like In Stars and Time and would really enjoy it.

For ISAT fans who never heard of Bugsnax, read along if you wanna. This post is primarily for the opposite, but you may find something else to dip your toes into as well 0w0

Extremely cute / lovable cast that holds so much depth and complexity than meets the eye

Look at these goobers. Look at all of them having fun. They all seem like the kind of squishy chibi type OCs you would find on tumblr, right? Wholesome uwu babies?

Hahahaha

WRONG

Well, kind of yes but still WRONG

These characters have so much emotional complexity that it can be genuinely hard sometimes to pick a favorite character between them all. Odile isn't just the "mom of the group," she has her own reasons for being on this grand quest that stem all the way back to her family lineage, her relationship with her parents. And it all gets explored for every last character, just enough where you can fill in the gaps yourself, but you can still feel that there's so much more under the surface.

You know that bit at the end of Beffica's sidequests where she reveals that, despite her bitchiness, her reason for being like that is because she has a MOUNTAIN of trust issues? And that she never tells lies, but wants to unearth truths before she gets hurt? Remember how you felt when realizing that fact? That's there with ALL of the main cast here. Hope you've got your snorkel because there's so much for you to dive into.

2. Gameplay that adds to the narrative and puts you within that world/the player's shoes

This is my personal headcanon and I don't know if it's intentional on Young Horses' part, but I always felt that running around and catching all of the Bugsnax for the grumps in Snaxburg was intentionally designed to make you feel like Lizbert. You replace her role as town "therapist," you solve everyone's problems in a kind of regressive way that ends up hurting a lot of people. Despite the gameplay being fairly simple, it still added a lot to the plot, to give you that sense in the endgame of "oh. oh god, i really fucked up." You are forced into the shoes of that world/character through the gameplay and it hits much harder as a result.

That intentional and thoughtful game design is present from the moment you start up the game, all the way to the end. In Stars and Time has the best "ludonarrative harmony" I have ever seen. Ever.

The way that the game and story is paced makes you fully understand what Siffrin is going through, the constant slog through the castle (without it ever feeling grindy by the way!), zoning out through the same bits of dialogue. At any given point, no matter how dramatically Siffrin acts, you understand emotionally why he is at that point. You feel his exhaustion, his surprise, his desperate hope, his "i'm going to try fucking anything at this point" attitude. The entire way from start to finish, you feel it.

I refuse to say any more because doing so would spoil the game. But trust me when I say, if you noticed what Bugsnax was doing there with player/Lizbert parallels? You'd love this game.

3. "What is Straight?"

So you know how we all collectively agreed that Gramble is trans? and that Wambus/Triffany are the most bisexual straight couple?

How would you like those types of characters.... but have those conversations out loud?

Listen, I love this fandom as much as the next person, and I am a Transble believer at heart. But it's easy to forget that those are all just talked about in fanon, you know? (Despite gramble literally being trans flag colors listen i KNOW). We get certain bits of characters being introspective about their genders and gender roles, like Wambus being really stubborn with his farm and wanting to maintain a sustainable way of living, being "the breadwinner," for him and his wife. And Floofty feeling like an outcast for behaving in a way that is not "socially acceptable" while being nonbinary. But we never talk about those specific subjects directly, about sexuality, gender identity and the like. Not that Bugsnax NEEDS that, it's just something the writers never really thought to include.

But In Stars and Time... it scratched an itch I never knew needed scratched. Take the thirteen different pieces of character complexity and condense it into five. The discussions that the main party have in relation to their identities, both sexual and gender, are some of the most phenomenal pieces of writing I've ever seen. I've talked with asexual people who played this game who were like "finally, FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT." Finally getting some characters that resonated with them so, so well. And there is a discussion about halfway through the game with a transgender character that absolutely floored me, because so many post-transition character arcs that I see are related to dealing with transphobes and accepting your slay self queen/king/my liege. And that's good. It's cool. But I feel I've seen that so many times now I know the basic plot beats. And ISAT throws in a unique twist to it that I rarely see and the influence that their past combined with cultural pressure it's just, it's SO GOOD. You gotta see it to believe it man, I'm leaving out so much shit here you need to check it out yourself.

4. It will reach into your chest and strangle your heart with its claws

Despite how cute both games can be, they can bash the back of your head with a steel chair of emotion.

You know that feeling you get when you complete a lot of bugsnax sidequests? When you realize Triffany will never get the closure she wanted; when you've helped Wiggle chase this dream of a muse that doesn't exist, and that it was (at least partially) your fault? Well how about if that was the entire game?

This game has some of the highest highs and lowest lows, emotionally speaking. A lot of ISAT also has that same sort of emotional ambiguity Bugsnax has; certain plot points will never be resolved, because that's just life. And you're forced to sit with it, sit in that guilt and resentment because this isn't a problem that can be solved so quickly but you still tried and that arguably made things worse.

Yes, an argument could be made that because Siffrin is not a self insert like The Journalist, then there's a layer of disconnect. But remember what I said in point two: you understand every step Siffrin takes the whole way through because you play it. You sit in it. And no matter how dramatically Siffrin acts, it will be hard to deny that you wouldn't do the same in their place.

5. A big mysterious twist that will emotionally gut you and leave you to dry

Obviously I can't put much here. It'd spoil Bugsnax for ISAT fans and spoil ISAT for Bugsnax fans, more than I already have. But for the fans of each respective games, you KNOW what I'm talking about. And there is an equivalent in the other as well.

If the image of Siffrin making that face intrigues you in any way, especially compared to what I've already shown you. Then go in the game blind. The scene this is from blindsides so many people and once you hit That Face, you know the true game has begun.

----------

That's about the best pitch I can give for Bugsnax fans to play ISAT. I really do feel there's a lot of emotional overlap between these two, even if they're completely different games by nature. There's a lot to love and sink your teeth into.

If this is your first time hearing about either of these games and any of this sounds intriguing to you? Trust me. GO IN BLIND. The gameplay/story blend may not click for everyone right away, but if you let yourself sink into this game, if you let yourself connect with it, boy oh boy does it connect. There is truly nothing like In Stars and Time and/or Bugsnax, and the more people experience this game, the better. Trust the process, slink into it.

I promise you won't regret it.

Thanks for making it to the end have some silly little guys

[astronomergrump]

my favorite little albino cultists gal. She worships mother snax, a being that's above the bugsnax queens but not above mother naturae. She believes it's killed, or be killed.

She's also on my artfight page!

U should like totally check it out and we can follow and attack each other. Mhm Mhm mhm

[kosah-hedron]

I heard from a friend who i trust with this information that Unity is basically taking the decision back 90%. Since I heard about it though, I redownloaded a bunch of Unity games and realized just HOW MANY are unity. Like, just to name a few favorites, Slime Rancher, A Short Hike, Bugsnax, and Spiritfarer. And I mentioned Subnautica in my last post about this. I LOVE these games and I hope Unity's image never recovers.

Edit: HOLLOW KNIGHT TOO

Edit 2: asked for a source, so found this one on the official unity blog